Category Paul Motian

Album Review: Konitz/Mehldau/Haden/Motian’s Live At Birdland

The ECM label has always prided itself on the sonic detail of its recordings, but Lee Konitz’s Live At Birdland may be its most impressive technical achievement yet. Birdland is a very small jazz club in Midtown Manhattan, famous for its dry acoustics and intimate setting, yet a tantalising, almost ethereal gloss lingers around every […]

Paul Motian 1931-2011

Paul Motian, the drummer, composer and bandleader who has died aged 80, was one of jazz’s great listeners. He reacted to the most subtle changes in a soloist’s phrasing and altered his playing accordingly. Sometimes a simple backbeat was the first casualty of this approach, making him a very popular drummer in the free jazz/avant-garde […]